Turkey-Syria thawing ties could lead to migration of millions – Ilham Ahmed
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Ilham Ahmed, President of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), said on Thursday that more than 10 million Syrians in northern Syria refuse to reconcile with the Syrian government and are likely to migrate en masse.
Ahmed told North Press that she does not expect that the recent Turkish policy will have positive outcomes that would lead to a solution to the Syrian crisis.
In December 2022, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and the head of Turkish intelligence, Hakan Fidan, met with Syrian defense minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas and Syrian intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk in the Russian capital under the gaze of Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu.
It marked the first official meeting between Turkey and Syria since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
Days later, cities and towns under Turkish-backed Syrian opposition factions, also known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), in the northern Aleppo Governorate witnessed week-long protests under the slogan “We will not reconcile.”
“Turkey and the Syrian government seek to reconcile on the expense of both the Turkish and Syrian peoples,” Ahmed added.
The reconciliation is likely Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ploy to influence the Turkish presidential elections, but really aborts the democratic project in Syria, according to Ahmed.
Normalization between the two parties may worsen the Syrian crisis, she said.
The official noted that “the intelligence and security relations between the Syrian and Turkish regimes were not interrupted throughout the years of the Syrian crisis.”
“Now there are ongoing efforts for political reconciliation between the two parties, which definitely will reinforce the domination of autocratic regimes in the two countries,” she added.
Regarding to the stance of guarantor states [the US and Russia] towards Turkish threats to launch a ground military operation on northern Syria, Ahmed said that they stressed that “there will be no action that may destabilize the region and its safety.”
Since May 2022, Erdogan has continued to threaten a new military operation against north Syria, specifying his targets in Manbij, Tel Rifaat and Kobani.
Erdogan revealed in November 2022 that there were talks with parties to the conflict of Syria underway to carry out a ground operation against northern Syria and northern Iraq.
On January 17, the US Pentagon stressed their rejection of any Turkish operation in Syria that could further “destabilize” the region.